38 TROUT CULTURE. 



nothing of the bother of always having a feather in 

 hand when examining the eggs. 



The tyro will naturally ask, " How am I to tell a 

 dead from a living egg ? " Let him have no anxiety 

 about that, as a dead egg can be told in a second, 

 even by an inexperienced eye. A good living egg 

 is translucent, and has a beautiful bloom on it like that 

 of a ripe Muscat grape; a dead egg is opaque and 

 white, and when once seen can never be mistaken. 



These dead eggs should be picked out carefully every 

 day, s, if left in the water, a species of alga grows 

 upon them, and spreads over the living eggs in their 

 vicinity, and by killing them would, if left alone, in 

 time do incalculable mischief. This is called " Byssus." 



Every care, therefore, should be taken to secure a 

 perfect impregnation, as the more successful it is the 

 less labour will there be in removing blind eggs ; and 

 this labour is of no pleasant kind, as the work has to 

 be done with the hands, dabbling in the water very 

 often with the air below the freezing point, and the 

 running water very little above it. 



If, however, ripe milt and eggs have been used, and 

 all has been done well, the labours of the day will be 

 very light, and the sense of success will buoy up the 

 heart under any little hardship or difficulty. 



It has been said before that the eggs when once 

 placed in the box or trough must remain undisturbed 

 until fully eyed, if not hatched. Too much stress 

 cannot be laid on this point, as, if moved before they 

 have eyed out, fully one-half of the eggs are sure to die. 

 It seems strange that what kills one egg will not destroy 

 another ; it may, however, we think, be attributed 

 to the greater natural vitality of some eggs than of 



